Clyde Common: New Lunch Hot Spot

1014 SW Stark St & 10th Ave • ClydeCommon.com • @ClydeCommon

Lunch hours: Mon-Fri 11:30am-3pm

Who hasn’t heard about Clyde Common‘s cocktail program? It has been featured all over the place, from Portland Monthly to Esquire to Serious Eats. The West End spot is quintessential Portland with communal tables and a focus on craft cocktails led by their head bartender Jeffrey Morgenthaler, who recently came out with a cookbook The Bar Book. But other than some drinking snacks, I never really heard people talk much about the food at Clyde Common.

That’s all changing now with their new Executive Chef, Carlo Lamagna. After stints in New York, Chicago and Europe, Chef Carlo moved to Portland to take the reins of Clyde Common a little over a year ago. Chef Carlo is merging his Filipino roots with Clyde Common’s European-NW inspired cuisine to create a fun, unique menu. It is a little all over the place, but the dishes are extremely well-executed so that’s alright by me.

I graciously accepted an invite to a lunch held by Little Green Pickle to check out their new lunch menu for myself.

 

One of my new favorite  things probably ever is their popcorn with togarashi, honey and butter. Sweet, salty, and flavorful from the peppery Japanese spice mix. I without a doubt could eat a ginormous bowl of that by myself with no problems. Good news! This is on their lunch menu as well as their happy hour.

Also fantastic was the house made Tagliatelle with arugula pesto, egg yolk and fried spring onion. Pretty much anywhere can sell me on handmade pasta but this was especially good. Not too heavy for lunch but certainly filling.

On a more Mexican-inspired side of the house, the grilled sweet corn with espelette pepper and lime aioli, cotija cheese and cilantro was delicious. The only downside: eating corn on the cob is not the most flattering to eat, especially at something like a business lunch. If anyone has any good suggestions on how to eat this in a cute way, please let me know!

I also really loved the Catalan-seasoned seared cauliflower. They were crispy, topped with parsley and served with salbitxada, a Spanish tomato sauce similar to romesco.

While I didn’t try it myself, the smoked pork belly sandwich looked insane. Smothered in Carolina style BBQ sauce, loaded with slaw and with a fluffy brioche bun, it looked real good.

With entrees in the $10-12 range, this is a surprisingly not very expensive spot for the midday meal. Clyde Common is an excellent spot for lunch with work colleagues, guests from out of town, or just when you need something more than a simple sandwich for lunch.

Thank you to Clyde Common and Little Green Pickle for the invite to lunch! While I did receive the meal for free, as always, all comments are my own.